Joseph Pennell was born in Philadelphia in 1860. He worked as a clerk while he took evening classes at the Pennsylvania School of Industrial Art. After a period at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts he left in 1880 to become a full-time illustrator.

Pennell settled in London in 1884 where he lectured at the Slade School of Art. His illustrations appeared in The Graphic, Pall Mall Gazette and The English Illustrated. Books that he illustrated included The Jew at Home (1892) and A Little Tour in France (1900). During the First World War Pennell produce propaganda posters for the government of the USA.

Joseph Pennell died in 1926.